Good news for the Phillies: they beat Miami even with designated hitter Bryce Harper hitting .169 and neither he nor Nick Castellanos had a home run. Bad news: Castellanos is a .194 career postseason hitter (fun fact: Castellanos ended the season with no errors in right field). Schwarber hit 47 home runs to lead the club and nine players had
Read moreThe game of baseball is based on failure. But some failures are avoidable. The tone is set early in Game 6 of the World Series as home plate umpire Lance Barksdale does not call the low strike to Philadelphia Philly, Kyle Schwarber. I have umpired. To me, it is the most difficult pitch to call, which is why I have
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It’s what happens to windup pitchers once someone gets on base that often becomes a problem.
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Every year, there’s a guy like Mark Lemke. And every year, no one sees him coming. And every year, the guy who is “unbeatable” couldn’t hit a ball with a hat rack. Baseball is easy to handicap…say people who don’t know squat about how the ebbs and flows of humanity cause games and series and entire seasons to either flounder
Read moreEven with a hideous bullpen ERA and the 12 blown saves that went with it, Philadelphia still managed to finish just two games below .500 which is kind of amazing.
Read moreOffensively they have a few weapons that are capable of mass destruction… or of jamming when you need them most.
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Bobby Abreu was a feared opponent during his years with the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. But his name hasn’t come up much during hall of fame discussions I’ve seen. Everyone seems to be focused on Jeter’s wholesome virtue and whether the other end of that scale, the Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens of the world will get in
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A nine-game losing streak wiped out Chicago’s hopes for the postseason. It wasn’t the worst run by a formerly-contending team, but it comes close.
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Every summer the family black sheep come to visit unannounced and unwanted. That’s where the contenders are as they try to topple the Braves.
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The Spitter whiffed badly last year in our projections for the National League Eastern Division. So we went back through the numbers to see if there was a singular thing that Atlanta excelled at. The answer is yes…and no. The Braves finished fifth in the N.L. in runs-scored and eighth in all of baseball in batting average (.300) on balls
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